In Times of Globalization: Gift Giving and the McDonaldization of Consumption

Abstract

Gift giving is an important aspect of consumption in which income is not spent for the purpose of consumption but rather on someone else. Different questions are interesting, e.g. who participates in gift-giving circles, who refuses to participate in these exchange practices, what is the balance between giving and receiving gifts, how much is paid, what is the substance of the present and its packaging, how does gift giving develop over time? While the topic of giving gifts may still appear to be rooted in social domains and perhaps a relic of former societies, adding the term McDonaldization to the discussion has a completely different ring to it and other cultural connotations. McDonaldization reminds us of turbo capitalism and the mass production of food as new ways of practising consumption.

Steiner, P. (2017). Religion and the Sociological Critique of Political Economy: Altruism and gift. The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 24(4), 876–906. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/09672567.2017.1332664.